The Credit Suisse Magazine Since 1895 Issue 2 May/June 2009 International Edition Silence Deafness How Leonie Found Her Way out of Silence Music Composing Pieces of Music out of Total Silence Hans-Ulrich Doerig Interview With the Chairman Emergency Aid Report From China’s Earthquake Zone Renewable Energies An Upturn Ahead in 2010? Hernando de Soto Fighting for the Rights of the Poor Editorial 3 In the eye of the hurricane, silence reigns. Not that I have ever been close to the center of a whirlwind – or worse still – been run down by one. But the mere idea that there should be silence right in the middle of so much destructive power is one that I find fascinating. Many would no doubt wish themselves in the supposedly silent eye of the current global financial crisis. Yet, who could be sure that it isn’t just the calm before the (next) storm, to use another idiom? This brings us to the fundamental question of how we were to approach this issue’s special topic: silence. To avoid any risk of losing finer shades of meaning in translation, we have deliberately restricted ourselves to a consideration of the concept of acoustic silence. Not least because the idea of presenting such a concept in visual form was one we found appealing. How is it possible to reconcile silence with the purely look-and-feel experience of a magazine? For me, however, it is ultimately the pictures taken by Katharina Lütscher of the young girl Leonie, who suffers from deafness, as well as the photo reportage by Andrei Liankevich that bring the essence of the topic home without any need for words. They impressively reflect silence in all its human facets. The photos by Liankevich of the abandoned village of Kuzhbej in the Carpathians are almost poetic in nature. They record what remains when human life withdraws from what was once a lively settlement and, apart from memories – often expressed loudly – leaves behind merely silence. And talking about humans, it is surprising to learn that in a world that is becoming ever louder, our initial image of silence in the eye of the hurricane is not one that can be replicated in people. The latest techniques in sound measurement have shown that when a Tibetan monk meditates, a veritable hurricane is unleashed by his brain waves. But read on and see for yourself, and let the silent pictures speak to you! Daniel Huber, Bulletin Editor-in-Chief Gold Winner Gold Winner 1st Place Photo: Cédric Widmer Cédric Photo: FÜR NEUE KUNST HALLEN Mario Merz, Vento preistorico dalle montagne gelate, Hallen für neue Kunst, Schaffhausen, Photo: Raussmüller Collection «If you are really interested in seeing work of the highest calibre, very well presented, then it is necessary to visit Schaffhausen» (The New York Times) Hallen für neue Kunst | Baumgartenstrasse 23 | CH-8200 Schaffhausen | tel. 0041 (0)52 625 25 15 | fax 0041 (0)52 625 84 74 | [email protected] | www.modern-art.ch Contents 5 Credit Suisse 29 _ News On the resignation of the Chairman of 10 the Board of Directors, Walter B. Kielholz 30 _ Hans-Ulrich Doerig Interview with the new Chairman on the crisis and his objectives 32 _ News Mexican presence expanded – Euro- money Award – Asian Investment Conference 34 _ Culture Tracey Emin in Berne, John M Arm- leder in Lugano, Ruben Drole in Zurich 40 _ Crisis How people react differently to crises in various cultures 41 _ Education I Private schools, an essential feature of Switzerland’s education landscape 42_ Credit Suisse Collection Swiss artists displayed at the renovated Lugano branch 43_ News Corporate Philanthropy Day – Swisscontact – Client foundations 44 _ Disaster Relief Report from the earthquake zone in the Chinese province of Sichuan 48 _ Education II Promoting talent within Credit Suisse as part of the Next Generation Network 49 _ Education III Better educational opportuni- ties thanks to improved nutrition in Indonesia Cover photo: Katharina Lütscher | Photo: Andrei Liankevich, Altemus Silence Photographer Andrei Liankevich visited two Economy sisters in an otherwise abandoned village in the Carpathian 50 _ Renewable Energies 6HFWRUPD\EHQHƟW mountains of Ukraine and in some impressive pictures from economic stimulus programs as of 2010 captured life in a village of silence. 53_ Overhaul of the Global Economy Global crisis creates both risks and opportunities 54 _ Africa The continent’s long-term prospects 6 _ Sounded Composer John Cage brought silence to the remain good despite current slowdown FRQFHUWKDOOIRUWKHƟUVWWLPHLQ1952 with his work 4’ 33’’. 56 _ Tackling Poverty Private sector initiatives 10 _ Silenced On a photographic visit to Kuzhbej, an and promotion of entrepreneurship are crucial abandoned village in the Ukrainian Carpathians. 58 _ Media Sector *OREDOƟQDQFLDOFULVLV increases the pressure for structural change 17 _ Escaped How Leonie found her way out of silence thanks to the latest technology – cochlear implants. Leader 22 _ Found People need their inner silence – interview with 62 _ Hernando de Soto The Peruvian economist Jesuit and Zen Master Niklaus Brantschen. ƟJKWVIRUWKHULJKWVRIWKHSRRU 25 _ Analyzed Silence is not just nothing, but the harmony of high-frequency oscillations. Service 42 _ Masthead 61 _ Good to Know The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) sets the standard for environmentally and socially responsible forest management. Swiss paper (Z offset, with 30 % FSC component), from European pulp, produced by Ziegler Papier AG, Grellingen (ISO 14001-FHUWLƟHd). Your link to our know-how: www.credit-suisse.com/infocus 6 Silence Music 4’ 33’’ Composed Silence Bulletin 2/09 Credit Suisse Music Silence 7 The composer John Cage makes silence into music. And even now, 30 years later, they haven’t forgotten, they’re still upset.” The piece made Cage world-famous. 4’ 33’’ has been per- formed innumerable times since its inception, recorded on vinyl and CD, even using different combinations of instruments! It has also been an inspiration to many musicians and artists. In 2002, the es- tate of John Cage even charged British composer Mike Batt with plagiarism for his piece “A Minute’s Silence.” The suit was settled “The place of the spirit, there where it can unfold its wings, out of court, with Batt said to have paid a six-figure sum. Batt claimed is silence,” wrote French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. his piece was a much better version of silence than Cage’s: “I man- And this is an experience that is especially to be encountered aged to say in one minute what it took Cage 4 minutes and 33 sec- in music. An essay on the music of the 20th and 21st cen- onds to say.” He told the British newspaper The Independent that turies – in search of the most beautiful expressions of com- his silence was original and that he hadn’t copied it from Cage. In posed silence. 2004, the piece was finally performed live by a large orchestra and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 to tumultuous applause. Cage had evi- dently changed the world with his interpretation of silence. Inspired by Inner Sounds Text: Ingo Petz What possessed the American composer to come up with such a It was 1952 when the avant-garde composer John Cage dared to piece? Was it meant to be a joke? Or could he even have been crazy? present his experiment. Inspired among other things by Robert What was probably the most radical composition in the history of Rauschenberg’s “White Paintings,” the 40-year-old musician com- music had its roots in an experience of Cage back in the 1940s. posed a work with the obscure title 4’ 33’’, in reference to its dura- Cage, who was at the time very interested in Zen Buddhism, entered tion of 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Cage didn’t use normal staff an echo-free chamber at Harvard University. He expected to hear notation for these three short movements; instead, he gave the nothing. But, as he later remarked, he actually heard two sounds, a simple instruction “tacet”: silence. The work’s debut at Woodstock, high and a low one. “When I described them to the engineer in charge, New York, on August 29, 1952, caused a scandal. The young pianist he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in oper- David Tudor came on stage, bowed, sat at the grand piano, and in- ation, the low one my blood in circulation.” Cage wrote: “Until I die dicated the beginning and end of each movement by opening and there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One closing the keyboard lid. In between, there were silence, whispers, need not fear about the future of music.” rustling sounds and the animated buzz of the audience attending Cage realized that true silence does not exist, and concluded that the benefit concert for the Artists Welfare Fund. They were used every sound could be music with the appropriate setting, structure to Cage’s unconventional experiments, but felt provoked to the limit and concept, so that the listeners could fill it with their own notions, by this radical work. “People started whispering, and some even left fantasies, associations and ultimately meaning and experience. the room,” Cage would later recount. “They didn’t laugh. They were Cage’s piece was therefore viewed as the beginning of “noise music,” Photo: Christopher Felver, Corbis Felver, Christopher Photo: simply irritated when they realized that nothing was going to happen. a style that works with deliberate sounds, random interference > Credit Suisse Bulletin 2/09 8 Silence Music Top left Avant-garde composer John Cage surprised his audience in January 1961 with a performance with a toy piano.